Yoga is an international exercise phenomenon, evolving to become an integrated part of many people’s fitness routines. But the physical activity has also emerged as a point of debate among some believers who see it as far more sinister than mere stretches and poses.
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Jenn Nizza, an ex-psychic who spent years doing readings and communicating with what she believed were the dead loved ones of her clients, is among those speaking out.
Nizza is now a Christian who shares her story of leaving the occult, and she recently told CBN’s Faithire why she believes yoga isn’t just “stretching and breathing.”
“Yoga is a Hindu spiritual practice, and the word ‘yoga’ is rooted in Sanskrit. It means ‘to yoke to’ or ‘to unite with,’ and what they’re doing,” she said. “They have deliberate postures that are paying tribute, honor, and worship to their false gods, and they have over 330,000,000 false gods, which are demons, and they’re honoring them with these postures.”
Nizza specifically spoke about Christians who use yoga to stay fit, explaining why she believes participating in the fitness phenomenon can be spiritually perilous:
“First of all, Exodus 20 … says not to worship any gods before our one true God — not to have any other gods before Him,” she said. “You’re opening demonic doors by practicing yoga, because those postures that you’re doing are worshiping other little ‘g’ gods, not the one true God, of course, but Hindu demons.”
Nizza said yoga is based on another religion’s practices and, thus, cannot be redeemed. That’s what most concerns her about Christians taking part.
Despite people’s best efforts, she said one cannot separate Hinduism from yoga.
“We should only, as Christians, be concerned with being sealed with the Holy Spirit,” she said.
Nizza believes the issue has “infiltrated the church” and called it “super deceiving.” She believes yoga opens people up to spiritual oppression — something even Christians might struggle with.
Fully aware some will scoff at these claims and affirm they aren’t participating in the religious aspects of the workout, she again appealed to Scripture to detail qualms with such an argument.
“I would point them right to Jeremiah 17:9 — ‘The heart is deceptive,’” she said. “So, it’s not like you can take yoga and blast worship music and cry out to Jesus, or you say you’re praying while you’re doing these exercises. You can’t do that.”
Nizza added, “My friend … said once, ‘You wouldn’t put Scripture on a Ouija board and think that it’s OK to do it, would you?”
Listen to Nizza’s full testimony on “The Playing With Fire Podcast“:
She called churches’ embrace of yoga “heartbreaking, and said she, too, participated in the workout when she was a psychic and described how it became part of her daily mantra.
“I used to do yoga ritualistically, and the meditation aspect really opened me up and helped me to receive communication from evil spirits,” she said of her former psychic practices.
And yet another topic related to yoga — meditation — was discussed, with Nizza defining New Age meditation as a process of opening up and quieting one’s mind. While this sounds like a positive action, Nizza said it should deeply concern Christians.
She pointed to Peter 5:8 (NIV), which reads, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
“You see the correlation there,” Nizza said. “How dangerous that is to open your mind and quiet your mind.”
Nizza also discusses chakras, among other related issues. Watch the full discussion here.
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